The Billionaire and His Driver

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

After hours with the police, Ronny drove Brina back to Bradshaw Manor with a pit in the bottom of his stomach. This break-in not only traumatized her, but it traumatized him. That man came to take her away. But to where? Or to whom? But what was bothering Ronny the most was that the attacker would have also been taking her away from him . And the very thought of it was what he couldn’t accept.

He looked over at Sabrina. She was seated on the front passenger seat of his Mercedes, with the side of her head leaned against the side window and her small arms folded as if she was going inward. As if she was broken down with no one to build her back up. She had no siblings. Parents dead. Who did she have? And why was the world always picking on her?

She held onto Ronny’s arm the entire time they were being questioned by Police, and he wanted that connection to her again as he looked over at her. She was hurting. That burglar had robbed her of her peace, and had upended her peaceful home, and that disturbed him mightily. Why bother her of all people? Ronny knew he was going to have to ask her some tough questions, to get to the bottom of this, but right now he just wanted her to be alright. Right now he just wanted her to regain her peace. He reached over and held her hand. She looked into his eyes when he touched her again, and he looked into her eyes.

She didn’t know how to feel. In a lot of ways she just felt numb. But when Ronny pulled that attacker off of her, and when he stood between her and that gun, she clung to him. And even when the Police came, who should have made her feel safer, she held onto Ronny. And even as they questioned her, she couldn’t let him go. She knew it was weak and clingy and so not her that it was amazing. Because all her life, since her parents died, she never depended on anyone. But in that moment when he rescued her, and even now as they looked into each other’s eyes, it was different. She was depending on him. She felt safe with him. She needed him.

Their connection reestablished, he looked back at the road again. She leaned the side of her head against the side window glass again. And whenever she squeezed his hand, as if the memories of that break-in were rising back up within her, he reestablished his grip on her, and he squeezed too. They rode all the way home in total silence.

To Brina’s surprise, her supervisor and James Prado, the house manager, were waiting outside when the car drove up. She knew both of them lived at the Manor in separate guest houses, but she didn’t know how they would have heard about what happened at her apartment. Then she recalled Ronny had made several phone calls during their interrogation. One of them could have easily been to the Manor.

Mr. Prado opened the front passenger door for Brina, which shocked her since he had little dealings with the maid staff, and Elvira helped her out of the car. But for Ronny, when her hand left his hand and they no longer had that physical connection, it felt like something was immediately missing from him. It felt lonesome and unnerving. It felt like something he didn’t like feeling.

But one thing he’d already concluded: he wasn’t letting her out of his sight until the man that tried to harm her was tracked down and interrogated by his own Security people, and any others that were involved was tracked down too.

Brina couldn’t get over the worried look Mrs. Dash had on her face. She kept asking if she was okay.

Brina didn’t know how to respond to this side of her supervisor. She was usually so no-nonsense. Fair but strict. But tonight she seemed as concerned as Mr. Bradshaw seemed. “It was . . . scary,” Brina said, unsure what to say.

Ronny walked around to the passenger side of the vehicle.

“Are you okay, sir?” Mr. Prado asked Ronny.

Ronny exhaled. He was still feeling the effects of that night too. “I’m fine.”

“As a precaution, sir, I ordered extra security around the manor.”

Ronny nodded. “Yes, I saw it coming in. Not something I will allow long term, however. My home is not going to become my prison. But it’s a good decision for now.”

Brina could see a sense of relief wash over Mr. Prado. They all seemed terrified that just one wrong move and they could be fired. It was as if he made the call, but he knew, in making it, the decision could have gone either way with the boss.

“You’ll stay in my house,” Elvira said to Brina, which kind of deflated Brina. She liked Mrs. Dash a lot and was deeply indebted to her for taking a chance on her, but she felt safest when she was with Ronny. She didn’t know how she was going to feel in one of those houses all the way on the backend of the property with just her and Mrs. Dash back there. What if that man found a way to get pass all this security? It happened all the time on those Investigation Discovery true crime shows she often watched.

But fortunately for her, Ronny quickly nixed that idea. “No, she’s staying in the main house with me,” he said, and Brina relaxed again. “But thank you.”

“Yes sir,” Elvira said. A part of her was relieved too. She didn’t want some criminal searching for Brina in the guest house where she lived. But she would have helped Brina anyway. From the moment she saw her, she knew she was a good person. She just knew it. That was why she took a chance on her and hired her on instead of all those other maids the various employment agencies had sent to her.

“You two can call it a night,” Ronny said to Elvira and James.

They both thanked the boss and then were surprised when Ronny placed his arm on Brina’s lower back as he escorted her into the mansion. They even looked at each other with a did you see that look on their faces. But they’d been in service nearly all their lives. They knew how to see things, and not see a thing. They went to their respective residences onsite as Ronny walked Brina to his private elevator inside the mansion, and rode them up to his private floor, the fourth floor, with his hand still protectively planted on her back.